12 Days of Shipmas: Seven Swans a-Swimming
by Juliet'sEmoPhase
Summary: It's chaos around the house as a very pregnant Emma tries to keep her family in line whilst they get ready for the holidays. Post-Season 4, very minor spoilers. No smut.


Author's Note 30-12-15: So, in case you missed it on Tumblr, I have been writing twelve stories in the run-up to Christmas, featuring my favourite ships from my favourite fandoms.

Unfortunately, I became extremely ill and had to visit the hospital a few days before Christmas. Thankfully I'm fine now, but it meant I was delayed posting this and other fics, and still need to write the last couple of stories. I will do this as soon as possible, and thank you for your patience.

If you want to see the list of fandoms to come, or the prompt list I have been working from, please go to my Tumblr (at julietsemophase) and look for the "12 Days of Shipmas" link on my homepage where all the stories are logged.

So this fic gives us the only couple that are both canon and heterosexual. I guess I had to have one in there somewhere lol.

YES! It is Captain Hook (aka Killian Jones) and Emma Swan from _Once Upon A Time_. Seeing how the latest story arch in the show has been somewhat dark and depressing, I decided to go for utter out-and-out fluff for this little fic. I hope you enjoy :-D

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Seven Swans a-Swimming

Emma looked at the chaos unfurling around her from where she was stuck in her armchair, weighed down by the huge bump in her belly, and tried not to cringe too visibly. "Neil be careful with Marion!" she couldn't help but cry out as the two toddlers went tearing passed, squealing in delight.

"Whoa there," chuckled Henry as he and David yanked the string of coloured lights they were wrestling with up out of the babies' way, but the kids just laughed and they sprinted on, oblivious.

" _Mom, Robin,"_ Emma called tiredly out over Mary Margaret's little flat, resting her head on her hand as another, jangly Christmas song began playing on the sound system. "Your kids are trying to kill each other." This small flat wasn't built for this many people. It had barely taken her mom and her, let alone their whole family.

Mary Margaret looked up from where she was covered in icing sugar with Regina and little Roland in the kitchen, a wry smile on her face. "Oh hun," she admonished. "It'll take a lot more that for them to really hurt themselves."

"Call us when they start chewing on ornaments," agreed Regina cheerfully. "Then we can worry."

Robin at least showed a little concern for his daughter, hopping down from the stool he'd been perched on to decorate the higher branches of the tree, his head following the toddlers as they zipped around his feet. "Mari?" he said, catching her attention. "How about we go help mummy with the cookies?"

"Me too! Me too!" cried Emma's tiny brother Neil, jumping up and down, and she watched on fondly as Robin pulled up two chairs so the smallest members (for now) of their family could reach the counter.

The chaos wasn't over though, as Killian strode back into the room from where he had been wrapping presents in the bedroom, and saw the tree was no longer being tended to. "Ahh, well this won't do will it?" he said, scooping up a star with his good hand and making to put it on the top.

"Whoa there," Emma's dad admonished, brandishing an angel figure. "We always have the angel at the top."

Hook looked aghast. "Surely everyone knows it has to be the star?"

"You've not got enough ball balls," Henry jumped in. "Let me help."

"Sparkles sparkles!" tiny Marion cried, bobbing up and down on her chair by the cookies.

Emma didn't know whether or not to groan or laugh as she watched her family bicker fondly about how to best decorate the tree. "You're all doing it all wrong anyway," she scolded good-naturedly, rubbing her sore belly and looking at the disaster unfold between her fingers. "I think that's the most hideous tree in the history of Christmas."

Unfortunately her family either laughed or ignored her, and continued to throw whatever shiny things they could get their hands on at the buckling branches.

All except Killian, who caught her eye from across the room, then passed his star over to Henry to look after. "You battle it out son," he said with a wink, then strolled over to perch on the arm of Emma's chair, running his hand tenderly over Emma's swollen belly. "How's Baby Jones doing?"

"It's Baby Swan and you know it," Emma told him off, but there was no real sting in her words as she caught Killian's hand and kissed the back of it.

"If it's not _Baby Hook_ that kid is going to be seriously disappointed," Henry called over cheekily from his victory spot at the top of the tree, where the star now proudly stood. David didn't really look like he minded loosing though.

Killian waved his hook over at Henry with a mischievous smirk. "There's only one Hook in this family, lad," he said, giving him an old pirate leer.

Regina gave an ill-concealed laugh from the kitchen. "And one is most certainly enough." She pointed a wooden spoon in their direction, a devilish look on her face. "Emma, I'm trusting you to be in charge of the child's makeup when they're old enough, heaven forbid we end up with two Captain Guyliners."

"Cookies are done!" Mary Margaret called out a little too loudly, interrupting the fight before it could start. Emma wasn't really sure anyone would have come to blows if it had, but she was grateful to her mom anyway for being diplomatic.

She wasn't sure why everyone had insisted on cramming into such a small space. (Well, she did really. She was too pregnant now to manage putting up a tree, and Killian was well meaning, but hopeless. It warmed her that no matter how trivial, her family were always there to come to her rescue.) And now they were here, stepping on each other's feet, and she was glad.

"Oh, thank you Neil," she said as her brother ran up and presented her with a star shaped cookie that he had mashed yellow icing and about a hundred sprinkles on to. "Wow, it's so pretty." He beamed at her before scampering back to select one for himself.

"How about we put on a movie?" Henry suggested to the group.

" _It's A Wonderful Life?"_ David suggested, but he was met with a chorus of boos and groans.

"It's so depressing," Regina chided.

"And in black and white," said little Roland disdainfully.

"And _not_ how parallel dimensions work," added Hook with a raised eyebrow. "If anyone should know better than that Charming, it's you."

"But it's Jimmy Stewart!" David protested, looking around for support, but even Marry Margaret could only rub his back in sympathy.

"Sorry sweetie," she said.

"I like the one with the elf," said Robin cheerfully as Regina hugged him.

" _Elf?"_ she prompted with a hint of snark.

"Elsa! Elsa!" cried Marion as she ran around the room with her arms out like an airplane, Neil hot on her tail roaring like a dragon.

Henry looked appalled. _"Frozen_ actually takes place in _summer,"_ he informed Marion, but she wasn't listening.

"My vote," Killian announced, rummaging through the DVD collection. "Is for-"

" _Die Hard,"_ a chorus went round the room.

"It's not a Christmas movie!" cried Regina.

Killian raising his good hand and rested the tip of his hook on his pinky. "It absolutely is, and here are all the reasons why. _One!"_

"Uh, guys?" Said Emma, suddenly not feeling right at all. In fact, she was pretty sure she was sitting in a puddle.

But her family were immersed in a lively debate over whether or not the presence of terrorists negated the fact that the movie was set at Christmas. "It starts at a Christmas _party,"_ Mary Margaret pointed out sagely.

"Guys?"

"Christmas movies are movies you can watch with your kids," insisted Regina. "Not John McClane amassing an impressive body count!"

" _Guys?"_

" _Let it go!"_ sang Marion. _"Let it goo!"_

"What about _A Muppet's Christmas Carol?"_ suggested Henry.

A general sigh of _"Ahhh!"_ went around the room.

"Perfect," said David, ruffling his grandson's hair.

"GUYS!"

Finally, everyone turned around, and paid attention to Emma.

"Um," she said, wide eyed and mildly panicked. "I think I'm having a baby?"

There was a pause, where everyone just sort of blinked at her. And then the room exploded into action.

" _Now!"_

"I'll get the car keys!"

"Someone get the kids rounded up!"

" _Where's her overnight bag!"_

The only one who didn't seem to lose her head, was Emma. She just sat there, stunned, as the human whirlwind tore around her. "Guys I have done this once before," she said, despite the fact that no one was listening. "It was fine."

It wasn't fine, if she was really honest. It had been the worst day of her life. She had been alone, and scared, and in _prison._ She thought she would never see her son again.

A lump rose in her throat, and she looked down to her lap as she tried fiercely to blink back the tears.

And then Killian's hand was linked with hers.

"Aye love," he said warmly, catching her eye and smiling despite her fear. "But that time you didn't have us. Now, you do."

She didn't bother to fight the tear as it slipped down her face, and smiled back at her true love. "Okay," she said. "I'm ready."

Several hours later, Emma found herself exhausted but happy in a hospital bed, holding on to her and Killian's baby girl. Dr Whale had given up trying to keep them all from being in her recovery room, after his cries of "Immediate family members only!" were met with a defiant _"We ARE!"_ from all corners. Seats had been pulled from every nook of the ward, and Regina had taken it upon herself to magic their hideous Christmas tree from home to stand proudly by the water cooler.

Killian was sat by Emma's side, caressing the baby's tuft of hair, staring at her in awe. "We're a family now," he said, his voice catching as he spoke. "A real family."

Emma gazed tiredly but fondly at him, and decided to stroke his hair as he stroked their daughter's. She looked around at Henry playing a game with Roland on his phone, at Mary Margaret singing _Here Comes Santa Clause_ quietly with Neil and Marion as David looked on, and at Regina and Robin sharing a moment of peace as they held each other and smiled.

"A real family," Emma repeated. Despite the odds. Despite travelling worlds and defying death. Despite everything life had thrown in their way. "I guess we are," she agreed.

End


End file.
